We know that Earth is one planet among several that circle the Sun. We call that collection of the Sun and planets “the Solar System.” And we know that some planets are really far away. But how far is “far”? How big is the Solar System, our planetary neighborhood?

North High School’s Astronomy students have created a model of the Solar System along the hallway of the 100 wing (the 11th Grade hallway). They adjusted the distances of the planets from the sun so all

The Solar System

of them out to Neptune fit in the 140 ft. hallway, marked those positions on the wall, and created posters with information about each planet. At this scale, the Sun is only ½ inch in size and Earth the diameter of a human hair!